GOP Backing Off Anti-Gay Legislation

WASHINGTON —  For months, some religious conservatives have been urging the Republican Congress to help end what they argue is promotion of a “homosexual agenda” in public schools.

After winning important votes on such conservative social issues as abortion, their next topic was to be school programs dealing with sex education, distribution of condoms and HIV/AIDS awareness.

But as a House subcommittee prepared for hearings Tuesday on moral values in public schools--the anticipated forum for the new debate--Republican leaders facing a storm of protest from supporters of the school programs and from gay and lesbian groups quietly decided to downplay the dispute. And they said that they have no intention of introducing legislation related to the issue.

“I don’t see any [anti-gay] agenda,” said Rep. Howard P. “Buck” McKeon (R-Santa Clarita), a member of the House economic and educational opportunities subcommittee, which is conducting the hearings.

A chief concern, Republicans said, is that congressional action would run counter to their philosophy of keeping the federal government out of local affairs--a philosophy they have applied fairly consistently, although with notable exceptions, such as efforts to reinstate prayer in public schools.

“We are not going to be sitting in here, talking and trying to debate with people on this committee about whether this [program] is what should be taught and that [program] is not what should be [taught],” said subcommittee Chairman Peter Hoekstra (R-Mich.) after the first day of testimony. “This is not a morals board.”

As a result, the hearings are expected to serve as little more than a venting session for opponents of sex education programs that include descriptions of gay sex and distribution of condoms.

Republicans met privately before the hearing and agreed to conduct exploratory discussions on how to increase parental involvement in the education of their children. The decision came against a backdrop of fire and fury, including full-page newspaper ads sponsored by a Los Angeles gay rights group that labeled the hearings “witch hunts.”

The hearings were requested by the Rev. Louis P. Sheldon, who heads the California-based Traditional Values Coalition, a conservative religious organization. Sheldon asked for and received a commitment from House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) during the 1994 congressional election campaign that the hearings would take place.

During a Capitol Hill news conference Monday, several gays spoke of the “gay bashing” that they encountered in public schools and of their fears that conservatives are creating an unsafe environment for homosexual students.

Recalling the torment he said he endured in rural Wisconsin, 19-year-old Jamie Nabozny said he was told by school officials that “boys will be boys, and I had to accept this if I was going to be openly gay.”

Hoekstra conceded that while the anticipated “circus atmosphere” of the hearings had been avoided during the first day of testimony, which featured former Education Secretary and conservative author William J. Bennett, he anticipated more lively discussion today when witnesses are expected to talk about sex education and AIDS awareness programs.

Bennett said that the teaching of moral virtue should be left to local communities.

The federal government, he said, can do “research . . . to determine what works. I would not like to see you folks, with all due respect, promulgating a list of desirable virtues.”